Joy Lambert Phillips, senior executive vice president and chief legal officer of Hancock Whitney, will retire from the company on Sept. 6, 2024.
“Joy Phillips has been invaluable to our organization’s growth for more than 25 years, championing the highest standards of legal ethics and corporate governance according to core values our founders set forth 125 years ago,” John M. Hairston, president and CEO of Hancock Whitney, said. “As she starts this new chapter in life, she leaves in her stead a highly accomplished, highly capable successor, Nita Kuhner, as general counsel and corporate secretary as well as a team of very talented attorneys, legal professionals and corporate governance specialists who help ensure legal and regulatory compliance across all areas of company operations.”
Phillips has provided legal counsel in the financial services industry for almost 40 years. She joined Hancock Bank in April 1999 as general counsel and served as corporate secretary. She was integral to the success of the Hancock Bank and Whitney National Bank merger in 2011. She also served on the Hancock Whitney Capital Committee, the senior-most internal management forum responsible for the company’s strategic vision, design and governance. In May 2022, she became Hancock Whitney’s first chief legal officer.
Appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court as co-chair of the Mississippi Bar Access to Justice Commission, she received the 2010 Chief Justice Award for her faithful service to that commission. Additionally, her work to address the unmet legal needs of low-income communities earned her the 2013 Mississippi Center for Justice “Champion of Justice” award.
“Joy Phillips’ exemplary servant leadership has earned her well-deserved recognition in the legal arena and across the state as one of Mississippi’s most outstanding attorneys,” Hairston said. “She has a personal passion for and dedication to ensuring fair, equitable access to legal services for all citizens. Her commitment serves as an inspiration to professional colleagues, fellow associates, and those whom she helps.”
From 2005 – 2006, Phillips served as president of the Mississippi Bar during the association’s centennial year, the first woman and the first in-house counsel to serve as president in the Mississippi Bar’s first 100 years. She is also a board member and past president of the American Counsel Association and a Mississippi state delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates.
She is a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation and the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. She is a member and past chair of the Mississippi Bankers Association Bank Attorney Committee and the American Bankers Association General Counsel Committee.
The Mississippi Women Lawyers Association honored Phillips, a past president of that organization, with the group’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 for her outstanding contributions to the legal profession, having named her Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year 16 years earlier.
Phillips earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and Juris Doctor, with honors, from The University of Mississippi and graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University with highest honors. Having received the Law Alumna of the Year award in 2011 from the Law Alumni Chapter of The University of Mississippi Alumni Association, she was an inductee of The University of Mississippi Law 2020 Alumni Hall of Fame.
Phillips is a former board member of the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyer Project and was also appointed by the governor to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Advisory Committee. She also co-authored a chapter in “Foreclosure Law in Mississippi,” published by The University of Mississippi, and was the first editor of “A Guide to Women’s Legal Rights in Mississippi,” published by the Mississippi Bar Young Lawyers Division Women in Law Committee.
She is past chair of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation board of directors and a member of the Gulfport Kiwanis Club.
